How major US stock indexes fared Wednesday 3/8/2023

The Associated Press

Stocks drifted to a mixed close on Wall Street a day after sinking to one of their worst days of the year.

The S&P 500 rose 0.1% Wednesday. The Dow fell slightly and the Nasdaq rose 0.4%. Stocks were coming off a sharp drop the prior day after the head of the Federal Reserve warned it could speed up its hikes to interest rates if pressure on inflation stays high.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell said again Wednesday pressure on inflation seems to running higher than expected. But he also stressed the Fed hasn’t made a decision on the size of future hikes.

On Wednesday:

The S&P 500 rose 5.64 points, or 0.1%, to 3,992.01.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 58.06 points, or 0.2%, to 32,798.40.

The Nasdaq composite rose 45.67 points, or 0.4%, to 11,576.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 0.75 points, or less than 0.1%, to 1,879.48

For the week:

The S&P 500 is down 53.63 points, or 1.3%.

The Dow is down 592.57 points, or 1.8%.

The Nasdaq is down 113 points, or 1%.

The Russell 2000 is down 48.79 points, or 2.5%.

For the year:

The S&P 500 is up 152.51 points, or 4%.

The Dow is down 348.85 points, or 1.1%.

The Nasdaq is up 1,109.52 points, or 10.6%.

The Russell 2000 is up 118.23 points, or 6.7%.